“New Guy’s Guide” to the Arizona Yacht Club

What to expect from this bunch

By Mike FerringMike has been AYC Commodore twice, but he wrote this in 2000, when he joined the club. He’s kept it up-to-date since then.

Want to know what to expect from AYC? I wrote this as an AYC New Guy, so maybe my experience can help you.

I first ran into some AYC members at the annual winter boat show. I picked my way through bass boats and Sleek machines toward the only masts in the place and met Tom Errickson of the Sail Boat Shop. Tom explained that there really was sailing in the desert and he even knew a band of sailing nuts to hang out with. I ran into three of them later, got excited as they talked about the club.

After a half dozen visits to the Sail Boat Shop, I had my boat and began poking around this website to learn more about the club. I dropped in on one of the monthly meetings and joined days later.

Since then I’ve become deeply involved in AYC and besides enjoying the club events, my wife Maryellen and I have made oodles of good friends who sail. This is truly the greatest benefit of joining AYC: the fun of hanging out with people you like.

Monthly Meetings

I think the monthly meetings are the best way to connect. They’re always on the second Tuesday of the month. The Caddy Shack @ Rolling Hills Golf Course is a little hard to find the first time, so check the map. It’s next to the Phoenix Zoo and almost across Van Buren Avenue from the Hall of Flame firefighter’s museum. The entrance is in the center of the building, through some iron gates.

Arrive by 6:30 or 6:45 pm in order to check in and grab a beer or something to eat if you like (burgers with fries seem to be popular and I recommend the Greek salad). As you walk into the room, chances are you’ll be greeted by membership directors John Riddell and Bob Whyte or committee member Lori Reger. They’ll check you in, give you a name tag and some propaganda, and introduce you to some people who will introduce you to more people and you’re on your way.

In theory we have a system to try to make sure every new person is properly greeted and introduced to members. I know it’s hard for me to walk into a room of strangers and try to be comfortable; now we’re working to make it easy for you. (If you have any trouble, please let us know!)

The Caddy Shack @ Rolling Hills is a friendly bar and restaurant. (And there’s no smoking; smokers go outside.) Meeting attendance varies a lot, from about 40 to over 100. You’ll find families with kids. A wide range of ages. More men than women.

At 7 p.m. somebody will stroll to the microphone and begin a meeting that lasts an hour to an hour and a half. There are reports from various officers and people planning events followed by a program of some kind. It’s a little rowdy, but it’s usually a relaxed good time. Recently we’ve had some amazing speakers, including Peter Isler, Rolex Yachtwoman of the Year Stephanie Roble, Photographer Sharon Greene, Olympic Gold Medalist Anna Tunnicliffe, Annie Gardner, Andrew Campbell, and International Race Officer Peter “Luigi” Reggio.

Zillions of Events

I’ve been surprised by how many events there are. There’s something happening all the time. People who have been in the club a while know about all the regular, recurring events, so I’ve found it’s a little hard for a newcomer to know everything that’s going on. They seem to assume you already know the drill. One way to keep up is to sign up for the emails from the website or the Yahoo! e-mail list. (You don’t have to be an AYC member for either.)

Scan the calendar and you’ll spot the big “anchor” events. There’s a huge Birthday Regatta and Leukemia Cup the first of the year that has raised nearly $500,000 for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The Tall Cactus cruise/race in April is a lot of fun. The Commodore’s Celebration (aka “The Party”) in May is the year’s social highlight, where you’ll see some of this bunch actually wearing “business casual” clothes. There’s a campout in late summer. There are two complete schedules of races on Lake Pleasant, one in the fall, the other in the winter and spring. Oodles of races on Tempe Town Lake nearly year around, including the Cool Sunday Summer Series in the summer.

Around these main events you’ll find a constant buzz of smaller ones. Fleet parties. Informal races run just for fun, without trophies. “Raft-ups” of members on weekends. Cruises in Mexico. Weekend work sessions to spruce up the Arizona Sailing Foundation boats or the Committee Boat.

The Arizona Sailing Foundation (ASF) is a nonprofit arm of AYC that specializes in teaching sailing to adults and kids. ASF has Beginning Sailing classes a couple times a year and there’s a great Junior program to teach kids how to sail. If you’ve ever considered sailing, this is a great way to learn and discover.

I’d never raced until I joined AYC, but I thought it would be fun and a good way to meet people and a way to learn how to be a better sailor. Instead of taking out my own boat, I hitchhiked on other people’s boats. They didn’t seem to mind too much that I kept asking which way the course went and what we were supposed to do next. Sometimes we sat becalmed, cursing the wind gods and watching a wisp of smoke curl off the end of a stick of incense. Other times we screamed along at wild angles, trying to crank a winch and douse a spinnaker at the same time. In other words, I had a ball. I highly recommend it.

If you want to go racing on someone else’s boat, just register as a “cling-on” and ask around for rides. Don’t wait for them to ask you; you need to ask them. If you’re experienced, they’ll snatch you up. If you’re not, do it anyway. These people love this sport and want to help you enjoy it too.

The races themselves are pretty relaxed, at least on the surface. Some of the sailors are very skilled and some of the boats are tricked out with Kevlar sails and carbon fiber masts, but the bulk of the people are just out there for the fun of it. Protests are minimal. Aside from some trophies, the main prize is being able to talk about it over a beer and dinner at Spinnaker Point at the end of the day.

If you’d like to take the helm at races but are a bit rusty at it or have never done it before, there are a couple good options. Now that I’m an old hand at racing, I teach an Introduction to Sailboat Racing class for ASF. The other option is an “adopt a boat” program, if we get it going again at Tempe Town Lake (TTL for short). You can use an ASF Laser or Capri 14.2 free of charge to race in TTL races. We’re hoping that you’ll also want to keep it well maintained and sparkling. Ask Fleet Captain Steve Brown or one of the membership people about how to play. The program was suspended by ASF, but we hope to restart it in the fall of 2015.

Volunteer

Running a club with this many events means relying on gobs of volunteers. Everybody pitches in. The membership people will ask you to take some job or other and offer the club “two or three hours a week.” Try it. It’s a good way to get to know how the club works and to meet people. If you’ve ever tried to run an organization with volunteers, you know what it’s like. If you do the work, you’ll be a prize.

A large number of very capable people put in a lot of hours (exceeding the minimum weekly requirement by a bunch). They work hard and get little recognition, but do it because they care about the club. We’re not stopping world hunger here, but I think it’s impressive.